New York is facing a diabetes crisis, says the city's health commissioner. Rates increased 33 percent between 2002 and 2012.

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WEDNESDAY, July 31, 2013 — The New York City Health Department has documented an alarming increase in the Big Apple's diabetes rate, and experts say that unless something is done, the city that never sleeps may turn into the city that can’t get out of bed.

The number of adult diabetics increased by 33 percent between 2002 and 2012 in New York, according to the report, and NYC’s 10.7 percent diabetes rate has now surpassed the 9.5 percent national rate. The state with the highest rate in the country, as of 2009, was West Virginia, according to a Gallup poll, with 15 percent.

"It's an epidemic and a crisis,” New York City Health Commissioner Thomas Farley, MD, told a group of reporters at a panel on the diabetes epidemic, hosted by Everyday Health. "There are 670,000 diabetic adults in New York City, compared to 200,000 only 10 years ago.

Dr. Farley added that New York can be a toxic environment.

"It's too easy to consume too many calories, and too easy to not burn them off," he said.

The rise is proving deadly, according to the report, as one person dies of diabetes complications in the city every 90 minutes – 16 diabetes-related deaths every day. In 2011, nearly 5,700 New York deaths were linked to diabetes.

This increase, says Ronald Tamler, MD, Clinical Director of the Diabetes Center at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City, shows that New Yorkers' health is failing.

“We are eating less healthfully, are less physically active and as a result are getting more obese – all of which contributes to diabetes risk,” Dr. Tamler said. “Meanwhile, diabetes multiplies the risk for heart attack, stroke, dialysis and blindness.”

Part of the problem, said Sanjay Gupta, MD, Everyday Health’s medical editor, is that people have become numb to the news that the diabetes rate is increasing.

“We’ve become too accepting that the numbers of diabetics are going to rise,” he said in a panel. “But this is a very addressable and fixable problem.”

Fixing the problem starts with education, said Joel Zonszein, MD, director of the clinical diabetes center at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City – and not just for diabetics.

“I believe in awareness and education,” Dr. Zonszein said. “Changes have to be made in the whole family, not diabetics.”

“Each year, New Yorkers gain 7.5 million pounds,” he said in the panel. “If the soda ban went through, it would have reduced that by a third.”

The Health Commissioner’s report was released in conjunction with new data from Everyday Health, which indicates a disparity between how diabetics view their health and how it actually is. A national survey of more than 1,000 diabetics and prediabetics found that:

76 percent of diabetics believe that they are adhering to their doctor’s orders, but only 57 percent are effectively managing their conditions

44 percent say it’s difficult for them to get to their A1C goals (average blood sugar levels) and they feel bad about themselves when they don’t make their goals

60 percent say they don't have the tools (such as healthy recipes and weight management tools) they need to effectively manage their diabetes

Dr. Gupta said this disconnect comes from a lack of specificity on behalf of doctors.

“When patients leave, we tell them to eat healthy and exercise,” he said. “But we never tell them what that exactly means.”

But fixing the problem won’t come one patient at a time, Tamler said. New York and the rest of the country need to work together to beat diabetes.

“Our efforts need to focus on health literacy and classes for diabetes prevention,” Tamler said. “We all need to work together to provide education and greater opportunities for healthful food choices and physical activity.”

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